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The Warden
"I cannot rule this world until I am unopposed." ''(Alleged words from the Warden) ''"Do not speak of that evil here. It is the spirit of enslavement itself, and I will not suffer its name to be spoken in my hall" ''(Woag chieftain when told of a possible sighting) The Warden is a mythical Immortal bent on capturing all existing Immortals and imprisoning them so that he may rule the world without opposition. He does not lead any nation; rather joins or creates small bands of mercenaries and cults who desire to destroy or capture Immortals. The Warden will intercept God-Catchers who have caught an Immortal and steal their prey to imprison or torture them himself if they cannot be paid off. He has become incredibly skilled in the art of disabling Immortals, such as by encasing them in steel and dropping them at the bottom of lakes (to be retrieved for later). The Warden has been experimenting with techniques to break the minds of Immortals and use them as slaves. The Warden is purported to have sent at least twenty-three Immortals to a watery hell, and is said to have broken at least five Immortals who are now entirely loyal to his cause. He may have more. * Most nations will acklowledge the existence of the Warden, the exact "body count" of Immortals or involvement in the world is currently unknown as it is very good at covering its own tracks. * It has been rumored many large and powerful organizations or even nations work with the Warden knowingly to help protect and conceal his activities. World activities '''Slaver Empire' Slavery in Soi is a worldwide industry based in the capture or breeding of live humans for sale. While illegal in many of the great powers of the world, enough of the world remains either supplying or demanding to keep the business alive and well. Those that have attempted to shut down the slave industry have noticed a curious pattern within many of the organized networks and even in some freelancers that there seems to be missing profits not accounted by theft, breakage or embezzlement. These money transfers seem to all be listed under "management" and the trail goes cold at dead drop points all over Soi. Pointing to a central leadership within this organization. When caught and interrogated, slavers will point to an immortal that sets up and manages most slaver organizations from behind the scenes, however aside from these accounts proof is scarce as the only ones that have apparently seen the Warden are the lords of slave networks who seem to be unwilling to speak on the matter no matter how pressed, to the point of chewing off their own tongues when on the verge of giving useful information. Banditry Banditry in the various corners of Soi typically consists of loose groups of outlaws attacking and raiding travelers on the road for their goods. Over the course of several centuries, patterns have emerged showing certain bandit groups cooperating and coordinating, receiving and sending stolen goods to each other via an unknown source of organization. This organizing force takes a small percentage of their take an in return helps them perform their criminal activities, trafficking illegal goods and harassing travelers on the road. While not all bandits or groups are a part of this organization, it is the best guess of most nations intelligence that these bandits and marauders answer to the same master as the slaver cults that dot the surface of Soi. Micro nations and Cults The Warden has over time seeded and collected on various cults and tiny nations all over the surface of Soi to act as safe houses and information gathering networks. While not powerful or populous enough to pose a military threat to anything except for small isolated towns or hamlets, oftentimes they do spread worship of the Warden with a shared belief that it will one day rule the world and they must patiently wait for that day to come. Chain cults as they are often called for their practice of wearing a chain somewhere on their body, often concealed from others, pose a far more serious threat to the nations of Soi, as they can infiltrate larger societies and provide information or the occasional saboteur at the right moment. The Locker "Beneath the crushing depths of the sea, behind the doors of stone. Steel and ice, chains and spikes, lies the Warden's home. Eternal life and endless will, only time can tell, how long you last with a defiant soul while being trapped in hell" ''(Slave song about the Warden's Locker) '''The Locker' is the rumored home of the Warden. The exact location of the warden's home is unknown, though songs and stories refer it to being underwater or underground. Within this structure is where the Warden takes its most valued or rare prisoners, typically royal family members, people close to its enemies, or the occasional undying prisoner. Within the locker the Warden and its assistants often referred to as "Broken" begin a highly sophisticated process to mentally re-shape prisoners' psychology until it suits the Warden. While some are more susceptible to this treatment than others, it is generally acknowledged that the older or more mentally stable a prisoner is, the more time it takes to truly reshape their mind. Experimentation "Behavioral modification is the key to true power. Loyalty, fear, greed, while serviceable pale in comparison to the ability to reach into one's mind and change the way it functions" ''(Psychomancer journal found in the possession of a chain cult. ) '''The Locker' is a bastion of psychological experimentation completely cut off from any restriction or safeguards, making it an ideal if terrifying facility for learning more about manipulating individual human psychology. From out of these halls come techniques often implemented by organized slavers or conscripted armies to quickly subdue and "domesticate" people. These techniques are highly prized and are often traded for favors or vast sums of gold in the dark underbelly of Soi's economy. Search for the Locker "The issue is that an underground compound of this size could theoretically exist on any stable ground, we don't know the depth, the color of the stone walls, or whether or not the dampness described by the journal was intentional or natural. We are hunting someone that has had centuries to prepare for our coming, and judging by the sheer number of false trails it has left behind, we might as well be children being led around in a circle. ''(God-catcher journal, found placed on top of several bodies) Naturally the interested nations and bounty hunters have been attempting to find the locker ever since the tremendous bounty was placed on the Warden's capture. "Escapees" from the locker have been discovered all over the world at random locations of seemingly random ethnicity, sometimes displaced other times drawn from the local population, always in extreme states of mental distress. These have been theorized as not escapees but deliberate plants by the Warden to throw off investigations by providing informational flak. A common theme seems to be that the Locker is underground, damp, and the entrance way to the Locker is covered in exquisitely carved stone faces contorted in various expressions of pain, fear, joy, and other emotions. The location remains a mystery. Relation to other Immortals and nations ''"You will learn to love my chains until you resent their absence. You will learn to obey my every command until you are an extension of my will" ''(An alledged mortal escapee of the warden carved this into every possible surface of his room until eventually starving to death) '''Gorr and the Broken chain' The Truest King Vahr Reitter has said little of what he plans to do with the Warden, but has offered an extravagant bounty for the immortal's capture. He has decreed the Warden and any immortal who aids him to be traitors against the Council of the Undying and outlaws of the highest order in the Broken Kingdom. Those found to be working with the Warden and his organizations are subject to summary execution regardless of duress or circumstances. The most recent price offered for the Warden's capture is rumored to be the immortal's weight in gold, a dozen war trained horses from the Truest's personal stables, an entire suit of armor and weaponry made by the Cathedral's grandmaster smiths, and a pledge to build a keep for the individual responsible for the capture at the Truest's own expense. It is not unheard of for the Truest to raise the King's Army and pursue any band or organization within a fortnight's ride of the Broken Kingdom that is rumored to be hosting the Warden. While he has yet to actually capture the immortal by doing so, a number of brigand forces and upstart organizations have met their end in front of a cavalry charge. The Hearth Mother The Hearth Mother has publicly remained skeptical about the existence of The Warden, stating that anything done by one such individual could just as easily be perpetrated by a network of slavers with a handful of skilled god-catchers in their ranks. However, a task force remains in Hearth Home to discover the location and true nature of the situation. * The Family Hearth will buy and sell slaves in any country where it is permissible or legal * The Family Hearth dismisses the warden as silly superstition and a myth created by slavers to intimidate others into submission and told to children by parents to scare them into doing chores. 14th Councilor and the Ashed ethics council "Its not our business, and therefore its none of our business" ''(Ashed guard regarding slavery) The Ashed ethics council has standing orders to shelter immortals who ask for sanctuary within their fortified city states on the condition that their movements be tracked by the ethics council and they obey the laws of said city. The freeing of imprisoned or captured immortals however is none of their concern unless it directly involves the [[The 14th Councilmember|'14th Councilor']]. As slavery is outlawed in every Ashed city state aside from NorthGuard, any slaves must be left outside of the city walls and their owners will not be harassed, this law however can be bent at the discretion of the local guard commander. * The Warden is acknowledged to exist by the Ethics council, but is considered extremely low priority to find or otherwise deal with as he does not operate overtly within the city states. * Slavers cannot legally hunt down slaves within Ashed cities as it is considered kidnapping. However escaped slaves find it impossible to stay within the city walls due to the high cost of living and general xenophobia of the Ashed people, and are often re-capture outside of the city walls by bounty hunters. '''Technocracy and Encircled territories' Kushan The Emperor and Tallet Empire The Tallet Empire keeps the trade of human beings legal throughout the empire so long as they pay their taxes and adhere to the rules and standards of Tallet Law. The warden itself is considered little more than a myth perpetuated by superstitious slaves and slavers that wish to keep the legend going in order to intimidate their chattel. Woag and Warg The WARG have received over the centuries many anonymous contracts regarding the death of people either hunting the Warden or attempting to dismantle slaver rings and marauder syndicates. The contracts are always paid in the same manner. The corpse must be taken to a specific area and left overnight. In the morning, a specified weight of thick gold chains are bound around the body. Missing Immortals "Every decade I see less and less of us at this gathering. Some I can understand have grown weary of living and the care of this world, however some of these disappearances cannot be explained" ''(Council of the Undying transcript) Over the centuries, many Immortals of the original 150 have gone missing without a trace. This has been explained in many ways as them either going incognito to live normally as they can among the millions of mortals, to avoid dangers such as god-catchers, or simply due to the difficulty of keeping tabs on them over time. Immortals also have the small odds of being trapped under avalanches, starving or dehydrating until they can no longer move, or in the case of the Stargazer during the great war, sequestering themselves away from the world to escape the troubles. Many however suspect that the Warden is behind these disappearances, as bounties for the capture of Immortals are famously high, and many of these contracts have been collected on. '''Dead drops' Many God-Catchers over the centuries have recieved contracts to capture immortals, any if given the chance, however prominent ones are preferred. In the rare instance that these contracts are successfully fulfilled they are to be left in a steel cage at designated points and left alone overnight, the cage in the morning is empty and a large pile of specified payment, usually gold or precious gems are left in their place. Possible sightings and descriptions ''"Lem and I filed our way through the last iron bar and jumped the guard, took his weapon and his keys. We unshackled the rest of em' and ran though the fortress, killing every one of those slaver bastards we could find. The gates opened and we heard someone walk through, heavy slow footsteps and raspy breathing. We all got ready to ambush the boss, when the chains came. They whipped in every direction, smashing and grappling, one flew from the darkness and wrapped around my throat, such strength throwing me down the stairs as if I were a child. Thats when I saw (shaky writing) him. Standing at the center, broken weeping bodies around him, chains wrapped around their necks all leading up to his hands, that smile, gods that smile. I escaped, but I don't know for how long. He looked at me, saw me, he's coming for me. I won't let him get me. I wont let him get me. I wont let him get me. ''(Suicide note, escaped slave) The Warden, when physically described or depicted in paintings often found as a sort of religious symbol for slavers in Soi is always depicted as a large, powerfully built male of varying ethnicity. The face is never depicted outside of a massive perpetual grin and covered with a hood. The Warden is described as being very skilled at using heavy iron chains as a weapon for binding and bludgeoning similar to the fashion of Aemir, often using multiple chains at once in both hands. The council summons ''"You wanted me. Here I am" '' Towards the end of the Great War, a council summons was called to be hosted at the Ashed city NorthGuard. The council meeting was supposedly called by the Warden himself. The summons dictated that if the other immortals wished to see the Warden at a meeting, they would have to bring a retinue of no more than 100 companions to NorthGuard. Category:Immortals